Monday, 21 July 2014

I had a bit of a break from bench work at the weekend. I have had this crooked oak log for a while and decided the time was ripe to convert it into two 'crucks', destined for our allotment gateway. Our allotment looks after our chickens and provides us with fresh vegetables, so it deserves an attractive threshold.

I cheated and ripped it with a chainsaw, I didn't want to risk a bad split!

A bit of cleaning up with my big adze.

When it comes to adze handles, I have a preference for ones that aren't broken.

I've no idea who made this adze, or the handle.

Take two. I have had this Ochsenkopf adze for years, but never used it.

Its got a much narrower edge, and a different length handle, so I had to shrink my legs to use it.

To my surprise, it works really well. There's a bit more work to do, but I am happy with the roughing out.

Anyway, that was my jolly. I adze a good weekend. Back to the bench joinery today. Hand-chopping mortice monkey am I! There's a fair few in this piece.

This is not so much of a sit-up-and-beg settle, as a settle down and kickback settle. There's quite a long way to go before anyone can do that. All the panels on the right need to be fitted and the whole thing carved and polychromed. Oh yeah, and it might need some seat boards!

Monday, 14 July 2014

Up until now I have been securing stock for planing using a toothed bench stop and holdfasts. The rails on this settle are over 7' long. I roughed them out a while ago and now the surfaces have dried a little, I need to clean them up. I have been watching these fellows' research into Dutch and Scandinavian workbenches at Hovelbenk and the side wedged stop looks right for my bench.

And I had best make some holes in the legs for my new holdfasts. With them and the wedge stop, this rail is held firm for shooting its edge.